About this project

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Actress ANA KAYNE (Another Earth, Louie, Uncertainty) will play the role of Chris, a woman who after shacking up with a photographer upstate finds herself confronted by visions of the past and an unexpected visitor who asks her help in fulfilling his last rites. Ana and Jonathan most recently collaborated on a short film Dog which is premiering this summer at the Northside Festival in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

ASHLEY SPRINGER (Teeth, Dare) will play the role of the photographer who takes Chris upstate to his family home for a modeling shoot. Ashley attended NYU Tisch School of the Arts where he trained at the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School in NYC.

WILL ROGERS graduated from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts. breaking off into NY theatre. In addition, Will has worked for numerous regional theaters, including Williamstown, Humana, St. Louis Rep, Pioneer Theatre, and more. His television and film credits include: Law and Order, Blue Bloods, and Gossip Girl, and the films The Bay (directed by Barry Levinson), Nancy Please, Happy New Year, and Day 427. Will recently joined Ana in the cast of Jonathan's short film Dog, this spring.

The Creek When He Came Back

a new film by Jonathan J. Johnson

While modeling in the Catskills, Chris finds a landscape that holds for her a whole host of unexpected and haunting visitors.

THE FILM

After Chris (Ana Kayne, Another Earth, Louie) abruptly walks out on her boyfriend, she heads upstate with a photographer for an impromptu modeling session near his family home in the Catskill Mountains. Surprisingly, Chris soon finds that the woods surrounding the property have the uncanny ability to manifest ghostly visions of the past, both beautiful and haunting, animal and human alike. When the photographer Danny, has to head back to the city for an unexpected photo gig, the visions intensify and Chris finds herself alone as an unexpected visitor arrives with a daunting favor to ask of her.

Weird, funny, haunting, and surreal, The Creek When He Came Back explores how echoes of our past relationships, people we've lost and some we've given up on, can crop up in the most unlikely moments and places. My most challenging film to date, it was born out of a desire to explore cinema's ability to bring to "life" those that have passed by in our lives and those that have passed on to another side.

As an artist, I have always been driven by the idea that cinema and art are defined by how it augments our understanding of the world and the lives we lead, even if only in subtle ways. In that regard, Chris' journey in this film really mirrors my own as she transitions from a major relationship in her life into an open and unpredictable world.

Your support means our crew and cast will have the support they need to survive the shoot and bring this unique film to life. Thank You!

THE CAMPAIGN

With this Kickstarter campaign, our team aims to raise $10,000 or more in the month of May for the production of this film in the middle weeks of June 2012. Your donations help secure food, props, camera and equipment, expendables, safe travel, animals that won't be harmed in the making of this film, and more for our cast/crew all of whom are generously donating their time, talent and expertise.

For example:

A donation of $500 helps secure a van to transport our equipment, cast and crew safely to location in Austerlitz, NY.

A donation of $1000 helps secure the rental of the RED camera, generously being offered to us at a discount, or a set of beautiful prime lenses.

A donation of $10 helps buy a first aid kit in case of cuts and scrapes as we film out in the wilderness.

A donation of $20 helps secure a roll of gaffer's tape so that our team can secure cables safely and our actors can hit their marks.

A donation of $1 helps buy a few bananas for the cast/crew to stay healthy and energetic while shooting.

A donation of $50 helps us xerox and bind copies of the scripts, shooting schedules, and call sheets, so that everyone on set is on the same page.

A donation of $100 helps buy the slide film needed to create the photography that Chris and Danny create upstate.

A donation of $300 helps to buy one of the hard drives need to store our digital footage.

There are endless examples of the ways in which your donation, large or small, will help our production. As the campaign progresses I look forward to offering you more examples of how your donations support our team. Our team thanks you for your generous support!

WHO WE ARE

The Creek When He Came Back team was born when I met Ana Kayne at a reading of my debut feature screenplay at the 2011 IFP Script to Screen Conference in Tribeca, New York. Although the critique laid on me was, in polite terms, "harsh", Ana maintains to this day that she was impressed by my conviction in defending my cinematic point of view in the face adversity. In turn, Ana really blew me away as a unique, soulful, and beautiful actress. I knew I wanted to work with her and I began to craft a script for her that would later become The Creek When He Came Back.

We began working together, I found that Ana was not only an amazing actress but also quite adept and intelligent producer, a real driving force behind the success of the projects of which she is a part. In April, we spent a weekend shorting the short film Dog (made in a day, in the rain, for under $500) and we were thrilled with the result. The fact that we were able to work together without one of us throwing a slate at the other was a plus, too. The Creek When He Came Back, presents an exciting opportunity with us to take this collaboration to the next level.

In addition, our team includes a killer Director of Photography, David Feeney-Mosier and members of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, a group that meets weekly to workshop and develop its members scripts and films and is an unending source of talented crew and support.

HOW KICKSTARTER WORKS

It's easy! all you have to do is sign up for a free account, give any amount you can, and claim your reward. Your donation amount will not be publicly displayed, and we receive your funds only if we meet our full $10,000 goal. If you’d rather not claim a reward, you’re welcome just to donate, and if you’d like to increase your donation at any point during the campaign, just sign in, come back to this page, and click the blue “Manage Your Donation” button to enter a new amount or choose a new incentive.

ABOUT OUR REWARDS:

After spending the day location scouting in Austerlitz, NY, and seeing a ton of awesome birds I didn't even know existed, we decided to name some of our rewards after some feathered friends that have been known to spend some time in the state of New York. Check out our "Updates" page for some armchair ornithology and images.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

Born and raised in Tulsa, OK, Jonathan was drawn to film at an early age. Raised on the Marx Brothers and Bill Murray, his love of film was expanded the films of Terrence Malick who helped cement the idea that cinema can be a transcending expression of philosophy, love, and humankind's relationship to nature and the universe we live in.

We love hearing from our supporters and prospective supporters, and hope that this film inspires many conversations in the future. Please contact us at RabbitBearMountainFilms AT gmail DOT com with any questions whatsoever, and be sure to check us out on TUMBLR, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, PINTEREST.

From the very deepest bottoms of our hearts, thank you for visiting the page and thank you for considering making a donation. We're more grateful for every supporter than you will ever know.

Thank You!

Jonathan

Thank you for visiting our Kickstarter campaign page for The Creek When He Came Back. We look forward to having you on board!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $500 or more
About $500

Come on up and spend a couple days on location during our shoot in beautiful Austerlitz, NY. Pitch a tent or stay in one of the open rooms. (For security reasons this is limited to friends of the cast/crew only. Travel not included.)